Bay Area’s poverty soared, data shows, as California’s top earners saw windfalls

Newly released data found that the San Francisco Bay Area’s poverty rate soared from 12.2% to 16.3% in 2023, with an approximate total 1.02 million residents in this six-county region considered impoverished by year’s end.

Another 12.5% of residents – about 790,000 people – hovered on the brink of poverty, meaning that about three in 10 Bay Area residents struggled to cover basic expenses.

The data, released by the anti-poverty non-profit Tipping Point Community, make clear that cost of living has ballooned far beyond wages for many residents, hearkening to this region’s stark wealth gap.

The poverty threshold in the Bay Area is $28,081 annual income for one adult and $52,715 for a family of four, according to Tipping Point Community. The near poverty benchmark is $42,122 for one adul